Dispatches from Bangladesh
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NES-11 PAKISTAN Nicholas Schmidle is a Phillips Talbot Fellow of the Institute studying identity and politics in Pakistan. ICWA Dispatches from Bangladesh LETTERS By Nicholas Schmidle FEBRUARY 8, 2007 Since 1925 the Institute of THE 2007 ELECTION SEASON in Bangladesh has featured an unexpected Current World Affairs (the Crane- — and unlikely — pair of stars: the army and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Moham- Rogers Foundation) has provided mad Yunus. Yunus, the microcredit guru and acclaimed “banker to the poor,” re- long-term fellowships to enable cently announced that he was entering the political fray by promising to “build the outstanding young professionals Bangladesh as we dreamt.” And the army, which took control of the country 11 days to live outside the United States before the parliamentary elections scheduled for January 22, has embarked on a merciless anti-corruption campaign. It has arrested thousands of allegedly crooked and write about international politicians and sent the rest into hiding. To arrange an interview in Dhaka these areas and issues. An exempt days can be trying; dodging arrest, many politicians have changed phone numbers operating foundation endowed and no longer sleep at home. The only politico freely out and about is Yunus. by the late Charles R. Crane, the Institute is also supported by Kamal Hossain, like millions of others around the country, is ecstatic. A well- contributions from like-minded dressed man in his early 70s with a deep, fleshy voice, Hossain sounded triumphant individuals and foundations. and giddy during our recent meeting. “People are shocked, because suddenly, the law has returned to Bangladesh,” he said. He thinks that if Yunus can leverage his huge public stature and stay committed to clean, principled politics, he could “fuel a real democratic movement.” Thirty-five years ago, Hossain played a critical role TRUSTEES in the movement to form Bangladesh, acting first as legal advisor to “father of the Bryn Barnard nation” Sheik Mujibur Rahman and later writing the 1972 Constitution. But after Joseph Battat thirty years, he found his nation’s prospects growing grim. Yunus’ candidacy, Hus- Carole Beaulieu sein said, is proof that, “God exists for Bangladesh.” Mary Lynne Bird Steven Butler But is serious change truly underfoot? And can the army take credit? Peter Geithner Gary Hartshorn Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority country of roughly 145 million people, whose Pramila Jayapal Cheng Li Dasa Obereigner David Z. Robinson Carol Rose John Spencer Edmund Sutton HONORARY TRUSTEES David Elliot David Hapgood Pat M. Holt Edwin S. Munger Richard H. Nolte Albert Ravenholt Phillips Talbot Institute of Current World Affairs The Crane-Rogers Foundation The Karwan Bazar slum Four West Wheelock Street Hanover, New Hampshire 03755 U.S.A. This article was published on Slate, a daily magazine on the web, April 17, 2007. http://www.slate.com/id/2164200/entry/0/ army has a history of meddling in politics. In 1975, a hand- reckless adventurism, i.e. staging a coup. But growing ful of army officers assassinated Mujib and his family. That tensions and violence throughout the country in late 2006 touched off a rapid series of coups and counter-coups. pushed their patience to the limit. General Ziaur Rahman, who ruled from 1975 through 1981, survived 22 coup attempts before being finally assas- The trouble started in October 2006, when the out- sinated. Five separate military regimes ruled from the time going BNP government handed power to a caretaker of Mujib’s murder until December 1990, when massive administration full of BNP sympathizers. In protest, the street demonstrations forced General Ershad to step down AL orchestrated demonstrations, strikes and blockades, and hand power to a civilian government. during which 40 people died and hundreds were injured. As the elections neared, the frequency and intensity of the During three elections since 1991 the army has re- street battles intensified. On January 3, the AL announced mained in its barracks. Many considered Bangladesh that it was boycotting the polls. This prompted the Inter- a model for other burgeoning Muslim democracies to national Republican Institute and the National Demo- emulate. The United States Institute of Peace published a cratic Institute, two election monitoring organizations, to report in May 2005 that compared Bangladesh to Turkey cancel their programs on the basis that polls without one and added that it “exemplifies the coexistence of Islam of the two major parties could never be considered free and democracy.” But regular elections and a functioning or fair. As street violence increased, the UN hinted to the democracy are not the same. During this period of civil- army that its inability to keep peace in Bangladesh was ian rule, the heads of the two main political parties, Sheik threatening its peacekeeping mandate overseas. Hasina of the Awami League (AL) and Khaleda Zia of the Bangladeshi Nationalist Party (BNP), fought out one of I arrived on January 13th, two days after President the world’s nastiest personal rivalries. They competed Iajuddin Ahmed declared the State of Emergency. No one with one another in everything, even in the amount of really knew what to think. Had the army staged a coup? money they could plunder from the state. Transparency Was martial law coming next? On my first night in Dhaka, International, the corruption watchdog, ranked Bangla- I met a young couple at an upscale café near the center of desh as the most corrupt nation in the world for five out town. They hadn’t traveled out of their house for the past of the last six years. Meanwhile, the World Bank estimates couple weeks, guarding against the off-chance that they that the average person makes $470 a year. would be caught someplace where protesters might be chucking bricks at the police. They were thrilled about the Throughout the 1990s and the first seven years of this State of Emergency. The roads were safe and they could get decade, the army sat back and watched. It had secured their cappuccinos again. Already, rumors were circulating a sweet peacekeeping mandate with the United Nations about Yunus taking on a central political role, perhaps as and didn’t want to see that jeopardized as a result of any president or chief advisor to the caretaker government. When I asked the cappuccino couple what they thought, the girl nodded her head approvingly and said, “This country could use some new people.” By the time I left a month later, Yunus had officially announced the formation of his party, Nagorik Shakti, or Citizen’s Power. He talked about saving the country and rescuing the poor. I knew that the café crowd and the elite loved him, but what about the poor? MOHAMMAD ABDUL IS A SEVENTY-SEVEN-YEAR- old slum dweller with a long, white beard, stained at the tips like the mustache of a two-pack- a-day-smoker. On the day we met, he wore a green, crocheted prayer cap and button on his left breast pocket to commemorate his service as a freedom fighter in the 1971 war. He stood in front of his home 2 NES-11 — a tin shack suspended by a few knobby- kneed bamboo poles above stagnant water, rotting celery stalks and shimmering pieces of plastic chip bags — and explained how he was about to be evicted. As part of the its anti-corruption and lawlessness campaign, the army was work- ing in conjunction with police units and detachments of the elite, anti-crime force known as Rapid Action Battalion, or RAB, to demolish numerous settlements deemed illegal for encroaching on government prop- erty. Three days before my visit, RAB was in the Karwan Bazar slum to give Abdul a three-day notice to leave. “I spilled blood for this country because I believed that the poor would live freely, but we are still being ha- rassed,” he told me while exposing a mouth- ful of teeth the size of dominoes, the result of an aggressively receding gum line. I expected him to continue berating the joint forces for their plans to demolish “I spilled blood for this country because I believed that the poor would his home. But in fact, he was sanguine. He live freely, but we are still being harassed,” said Mohammad Abdul. granted that he had no place to go and would probably wind up “roaming the streets,” but he didn’t or stomp to death at least 20 locals every year.) blame the army. They are doing the right thing, he said. “These crooks must be arrested.” Nurul is a Rohingya, an outcast community of Muslims from the Rakhine State in western Myanmar It wasn’t until I brought up Yunus that he became (formerly Burma). The military government in Myanmar animated. When I asked Abdul if he could consider considers Rohingyas to be migrants from Bangladesh, supporting Yunus in the next election, he sucked on his having moved to Myanmar only in the last few centuries, domino-sized teeth and pretended to swat at invisible and refuses them citizenship rights. “They are treated like flies. Microcredit is one thing, he explained, but running dogs,” an official from the United Nations High Commis- for prime minister is quite another. “Yunus was fine before sioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told me. Their national ID winning the Peace Prize,” Abdul said. He stuck to what he cards, under “nationality and religion,” read “Bengali knew best. “But he doesn’t know what he is talking about Muslims.” The junta debases Rohingyan religious and when it comes to politics. He is just talking.” cultural traditions at every opportunity. Most mosques stand in disrepair. Those in passing condition are turned into police and fire stations.